A Maidens Grave

helicopter?”
    “The pros know,” Silbert said. “Cut into the feed. I’m ready to roll. Let’s do it before we get shot down.”
    There was a staticky click and he heard a Toyota commercial suddenly cut off in mid-disclaimer. “And now from Crow Ridge, Kansas,” the baritone announcer said, “we have a live report from Channel 9 anchorman Joe Silbert with exclusive footage from the kidnaping scene, where a number of students from the Laurent Clerc School for the Deaf and two teachers are being held by escaped convicts. Let’s go live to you, Joe.”
    “Ron, we’re overlooking the slaughterhouse in which the girls and their teachers are being held. As you can see, there are literally hundreds of troopers surrounding the building. The police have set up a series of those brilliant halogen lights to shine into the slaughterhouse windows, presumably to prevent any sniping from inside.
    “The lights and the presence of the troopers, however, didn’t prevent the murder of one of the hostages on that spot right about there, in the center of your screen, about six hours ago. A trooper told me that the girl was released by the fugitives and was walking down to join her family and friends when a single shot rang out and she was hit squarely in the back. She was, as you said, Ron, deaf, and the trooper told me he believed she’d used sign language to plead for help and to tell her family that she loved them.”
    “Joe, do you know the identity of that girl?”
    “No, we don’t, Ron. The authorities are being very slow in releasing any information.”
    “How many hostages are involved?”
    “At this point it seems there are four students remaining inside and two teachers.”
    “So some have gotten out?”
    “That’s right. Three have been released so far, in exchange for demands by the kidnapers. We don’t know what concessions the authorities have made.”
    “Joe, what can you tell us about those policemen off to the side there?”
    “Ron, those are members of the elite Kansas State Police Hostage Rescue Unit. We’ve had no official word about an attempted rescue but I’ve covered a number of situations like this before and my impression is that they’re preparing for an assault.”
    “What will happen, do you think, Joe? In terms of the assault? How will it proceed?”
    “It’s hard to say without knowing where the hostages are being kept, what the firepower of the men inside is, and so on.”
    “Could you speculate for us?”
    “Sure, Ron,” Silbert said. “I’d be happy to.”
    And he signaled to Biggins, using the hand gesturesthey’d developed between them. The sign meant “Zoom in.”
     
    They got down to the business at hand, for they didn’t know how much time remained until the next deadline.
    Captain Dan Tremain spoke on the scrambled radio to Bravo team and learned that they had found a breachable door near the dock in the back of the slaughterhouse but it was in full view of a skiff containing two armed troopers. The boat was anchored about twenty yards offshore.
    “They’ll see us if we get any closer.”
    “Any other access to the door?”
    “Nosir.”
    Outrider Two, however, had some good news. Glancing into the plant, Trooper Joey Wilson had scanned the far wall—the southeast side—of the slaughterhouse and saw that, just opposite the fire door that Alpha team was going to breach, was a large piece of sloppily mounted plasterboard. He wondered if it covered a second fire door. The initial exterior surveillance hadn’t revealed it. Tremain sent another trooper under the dock to the far side of the building. He made his way to the place Wilson mentioned and reported that it was in fact a door, invisible because it was overgrown with ivy.
    Tremain ordered the trooper to drill through the door with a silenced Dremel tool fitted with a long, thin titanium sampling bit. Examining the core samples he found that the door was only an inch thick and had been weakened with wet rot and termite and carpenter ant tunneling. There was a two-inch gap and then he struck plasterboard, which proved to be only three-eighths inch thick. The whole assembly was far weaker than the door on the opposite side. Small cutting charges would rip it open easily.
    Tremain was ecstatic. This was even better than going through the loading-dock door, because opposing door entry allowed for immediate dynamic crossfire. The takers wouldn’t have a chance to respond. Tremain conferred with Carfallo